Blog: Little White Lies

Guilty of telling lies to small children?

Go on admit it, sometimes telling a quick lie to the little ones makes life a bit easier.

A new survey by bakery Warburtons has found that 90 per cent of mums and dads tell their offspring lies, with many parents resulting to fibs to get their kids to behave.

I know in our household that the children are regularly being coerced at the moment with an email to Father Christmas if their behaviour does not improve. Another current favourite is that not eating their carrots means they will never be able to see in the dark.

The latter lie highlights the current battle I'm having with number two child, who has recently decided to become very fussy about his eating habits. While once he would eat everything in front of him, including the plate, he is now refusing to eat anything apart from pasta, pasta or pasta.

Having spent last Saturday morning cooking pancakes with blueberries only for him to turn his nose up and demand pasta, I may have resorted to a lie about Santa not liking little boys who insist on a carb-only diet.

However, this week I'm determined to be more pro-active when it comes to his eating and have adopted a number of new techniques.

I'm hoping that getting him to be involved in the preparation could be one way of boosting his interest. So tonight's meal is going to be homemade pizza, the dough is currently rising, and with the help of a smiley face consisting of tomato, cheese and mushrooms, he may actually eat a balanced meal.

I have also invested in a new kitchen gadget that claims to make any sandwich look like a dinosaur. So his pre-school lunch box will tomorrow be hiding a tyrannosaurus rex tuna and mayonnaise sandwich, which may excite him enough to eat that and the carrot sticks .I'm not holding my breath though and I may find myself resorting to a few white lies about extra presents under the Christmas tree for children who finish all their food.